Our first trip east
of the Cascade mountains this year brought us terrific weather for the
second event of the NWTS season. Mostly sunny, without a hint of wind,
and about 60 degrees made for a very comfortable day to play paintball.

Twenty-one teams
made it over to the fast, fun fields of Tri Cities Paintball. Local 'ballers
commented that this was the biggest event in eastern Washington in a long
time. Also, for the first time ever in this part of the state, the NWTS
brought over a Sup' Air to use in the event. It took some coordination
(thanks to Jason Strand, Steve and Brian Albin) to clear a field and prep
it, but the players thought it was well worth it.

Once again, the rookie
turnout was tremendous with 14 teams showing. Landslide went undefeated
in their sub-division, and waltzed into the finals as the first seed. Following
close behind were their nemesis Game On Gear Factory Team and "N" Control
(Rookie.) Rounding out the six finals spot were; Sub-Zero, 395 B.C., and
Evolution.

The rookie finals
were hard fought. Evolution dropped only one game (to Landslide) to garner
their first win of the season. Landslide lost a game to Sub-Zero and stalemated
their game against Game On Gear, which secured their second place finish.
395 B.C. put in an impressive performance (even beating their sister team,
G.O.G.) to take third.

The novice division,
although relatively small for this event, was still very competitive. Team
KC nearly went undefeated in the prelims, once again turning in a great
performance. Wormwood also turned in a great prelims performance, despite
some large penalty points, to gain the second seed. "N" Control Novice
and Nitro II filled the remaining final's spots.

One flag pull and
one elimination separated first from second. Ironically, it came in the
same game between 1st place finishers "N" Control Novice and runners up
Nitro II. "N" Control got the first pull and two eliminations, but Nitro
II held on for the win and the hang. Team KC followed with a respectable
3rd, and Wormwood finished 4th.

Gregg Ingram, a local
reporter from KVEW (an ABC affiliate TV station), was on the scene to tape
a few games and interview players from various teams. He runs a monthly
sports segment for KVEW and said the spot should air sometime in May.